I have Hella H4 60w outers and Wagner seal beam inners on my '88 US-spec XJ-S; I also added relays for the low and high beam circuits to ensure full voltage to the bulbs. The high beam illumination is awesome, but low/dipped beam illumination is not good. The 5 3/4" H4 Hella beams are actually motorcycle lenses, and I can’t imagine riding with only one. The beam pattern has a right side upward flare to illuminate signs and pedestrians, and it seems that is where most of the light seems to go. I aimed them per the Hella instruction sheet, and played with them from there.
I would recommend trying 4 new Wagner halogen seal beams first…
SNG Barratt (I think) advertised a quad headlight conversion kit for $600 on the website.
I had the Hella 5-3/4s once on another car, and was never happy. I got Cibies a few years back for my XJS when they were still available, and they have a good pattern, but those aren’t as good as the Cibies of old because the lens tooling appeared to be wearing out. The lens fluting was not as crisp and sharp as older Cibies. They aren’t available any more. It appears that another brand is now available from Daniel Stern (Japanese brand?) that may be better.
Of course, we may be spoiled by HID and LED lighting on newer cars…
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